TRANSMISSION ART ARCHIVE
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Walking Tune (A Room-Music for Percy Grainger)
1986
Charles Amirkhanian
An homage to Australian-American composer Percy Grainger. Grainger's Walking Tune for solo piano was conceived in 1900 during a tramp through the Scottish Highlands. In this work, Amirkhanian uses the Synclavier digital synthesizer—a tool Grainger would have embraced eagerly—to combine sounds recorded out-of-doors (tramping in Utah; the shriek of geese; a swarm of humming birds)with musical sound. And he shapes a sensual and powerful sound-music piece that is true to Grainger's own song of praise to the natural world. Commissioned by New American Radio, 1986-87.